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From Byron to bin Laden : a history of foreign war volunteers

Arielli, Nir, 1975- author

Overview

What makes people fight and risk their lives for a country other than their own? Why did diverse individuals such as the poet Lord Byron, the writer George Orwell, the Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevara, and the young Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden all turn to foreign military service? From Byron to bin Laden makes a historian's examines the phenomenon of war volunteers who have travelled abroad to fight on the basis of a personal decision, without being sent by their governments and not strictly for the sake of material gain. Although fighting for very different causes, these volunteers shared a number of commonalities; they tended to superimpose their beliefs and perceptions on the wars they joined, while a personal search for meaning invariably underlined their actions. Through a comprehensive study of the history of foreign volunteering from the wars of the French Revolution to the present, the book opens up a broad range of questions that relate to individual motivations, ideology, gender, state-citizen relations, international law, military significance, radicalization and the memory of war.-- Provided by publisher

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Subject: Foreign enlistment History. / Military service, Voluntary History. / Soldiers Psychology.
• ISBN: 9780674979567

Item info:

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
UB321.A75 2017	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE